A brilliant career—as a humanist,
or a lawyer, or a churchman—opened before Calvin, when
he suddenly embraced the cause of the Reformation, and cast in his lot
with a poor persecuted sect.

Reformation was in the air. The educated classes
could not escape its influence. The seed sown by Lefèvre had
sprung up in France. The influence from Germany and Switzerland made
itself felt more and more. The clergy opposed the new opinions, the men
of letters favored them. Even the court was divided: King Francis I.
persecuted the Protestants; his sister, Marguerite
d’Angoulème, queen of Navarre, protected
them. How could a young scholar of such precocious mind and intense
studiousness as Calvin be indifferent to the religious question which
agitated the universities of Orleans, Bourges, and Paris? He must have
searched the Scriptures long and carefully before he could acquire such
familiarity as he shows already in his first theological writings.

He speaks of his conversion as a sudden one
(subita conversio), but this does not exclude previous preparation any
more than in the case of Paul.412412Quum superstitionibus
papatus magis pertinaciter addictus essem, quam ut facile esset e tam
profundo luto me extrahi, animum meum, qui pro aetate nimis obduruerat,
subita conversione (par une conversion subite)ad
docilitatem subegit." Opera, XXXI. 21. Lefranc (p. 40)
weakens the sense of this decisive passage. A city may be taken by a single assault, yet after
a long siege. Calvin was not an unbeliever, nor an immoral youth; on
the contrary, he was a devout Catholic of unblemished character. His
conversion, therefore, was a change from Romanism to Protestantism,
from papal superstition to evangelical faith, from scholastic
traditionalism to biblical simplicity. He mentions no human agency, not
even Volmar or Olivetan or Lefèvre. "God himself," he says,
"produced the change. He instantly subdued my heart to obedience."
Absolute obedience of his intellect to the word of God, and obedience
of his will to the will of God: this was the soul of his religion. He
strove in vain to attain peace of conscience by the mechanical methods
of Romanism, and was driven to a deeper sense of sin and guilt. "Only
one haven of salvation," he says, "is left open for our souls, and that
is the mercy of God in Christ. We are saved by
grace—not by our merits, not by our works." Reverence
for the Church kept him back for some time till he learned to
distinguish the true, invisible, divine essence of the Church from its
outward, human form and organization. Then the knowledge of the truth,
like a bright light from heaven, burst upon his mind with such force,
that there was nothing left for him but to obey the voice from heaven.
He consulted not with flesh and blood, and burned the bridge behind
him.

The precise time and place and circumstances of
this great change are not accurately known. He was very reticent about
himself. It probably occurred at Orleans or Paris in the latter part of
the year 1532.413413 So Kampschulte (I. 242),
Lefranc (p. 98 "dans la
seconde moitiéde l’année
1532 "), and, apparently, also the
Strassburg editors, vol. XXI. 191. Beza seems to date the conversion
further back (to 1628 or 1627) and traces it to the influence of
Olivetan, and so also Henry and Merle
d’Aubigné (I. 635). Stähelin (I.
21) puts it forward to the beginning of 1533. Calvin spent the greater
part of the year 1532 to 1533 at Orleans. Op. xxi.
191. In a letter
of October, 1533, to Francis Daniel, he first speaks of the Reformation
in Paris, the rage of the Sorbonne, and the satirical comedy against
the queen of Navarre.414414 Ep. 19 in Op. X.
Part II. 27. Bonnet, I. 12. Herminjard, III. 106. Lefranc, 109
sqq. In
November of the same year he publicly attacked the Sorbonne. In a
familiar letter to Bucer in Strassburg, which is dated from Noyon,
Sept. 4 (probably in 1534), he recommends a French refugee, falsely
accused of holding the opinions of the Anabaptists, and says, "I
entreat of you, master Bucer, if my prayers, if my tears are of any
avail, that you would compassionate and help him in his wretchedness.
The poor are left in a special manner to your care; you are the helper
of the orphan.... Most learned Sir, farewell; thine from my heart."415415 "Tuus ex animo."
Op. X. Part II. 24. Bonnet, Letters, I. 9-11. Herminjard,
III. 201, locates this letter in 1534, which is more likely than 1532.
The letter presupposes a previous acquaintance with Bucer. This might
be dated back with Kampschulte (I. 231) to the year 1528, if Calvin
were that unnamed "Noviodunensis juvenis" whom Bucer, in a
letter to Farel, dated May 1, 1528, mentions as having fled from
persecution at Orleans to Strassburg to study Greek and Hebrew; but
Bucer probably referred to Pierre Robert Olivetan, who was likewise
from Noyon, and a relative and friend of Calvin, and perhaps brought
Calvin into contact with Bucer. Herminjard, II. 132 (note 5),
conjectures that the young man was Froment. But Froment was a native of
Dauphiné, not of Noyon. Comp. Op. X. Part II. 1; xxi.
191.

There never was a change of conviction purer in
motive, more radical in character, more fruitful and permanent in
result. It bears a striking resemblance to that still greater event
near Damascus, which transformed a fanatical Pharisee into an apostle
of Jesus Christ. And, indeed, Calvin was not unlike St. Paul in his
intellectual and moral constitution; and the apostle of sovereign grace
and evangelical freedom had not a more sympathetic expounder than
Luther and Calvin.416416 Audin, following in the
track of Bolsec, traces Calvin’s conversion to wounded
ambition, and thereby exposes, as Kampschulte justly observes (I. 242),
his utter ignorance and misconception of Calvin’s
character, whose only, ambition was to serve God.

Without any intention or effort on his part,
Calvin became the head of the evangelical party in less than a year
after his conversion. Seekers of the truth came to him from all
directions. He tried in vain to escape them. Every quiet retreat was
turned into a school. He comforted and strengthened the timid brethren
in their secret meetings of devotion. He avoided all show of learning,
but, as the old Chronicle of the French Reformed Church reports, he
showed such depth of knowledge and such earnestness of speech that no
one could hear him without being forcibly impressed. He usually began
and closed his exhortations with the word of Paul, "If God is for us,
who can be against us?" This is the keynote of his theology and
piety.

He remained for the present in the Catholic
Church. His aim was to reform it from within rather than from without,
until circumstances compelled him to leave.

413 So Kampschulte (I. 242),
Lefranc (p. 98 "dans la
seconde moitiéde l’année
1532 "), and, apparently, also the
Strassburg editors, vol. XXI. 191. Beza seems to date the conversion
further back (to 1628 or 1627) and traces it to the influence of
Olivetan, and so also Henry and Merle
d’Aubigné (I. 635). Stähelin (I.
21) puts it forward to the beginning of 1533. Calvin spent the greater
part of the year 1532 to 1533 at Orleans. Op. xxi.
191.

415 "Tuus ex animo."
Op. X. Part II. 24. Bonnet, Letters, I. 9-11. Herminjard,
III. 201, locates this letter in 1534, which is more likely than 1532.
The letter presupposes a previous acquaintance with Bucer. This might
be dated back with Kampschulte (I. 231) to the year 1528, if Calvin
were that unnamed "Noviodunensis juvenis" whom Bucer, in a
letter to Farel, dated May 1, 1528, mentions as having fled from
persecution at Orleans to Strassburg to study Greek and Hebrew; but
Bucer probably referred to Pierre Robert Olivetan, who was likewise
from Noyon, and a relative and friend of Calvin, and perhaps brought
Calvin into contact with Bucer. Herminjard, II. 132 (note 5),
conjectures that the young man was Froment. But Froment was a native of
Dauphiné, not of Noyon. Comp. Op. X. Part II. 1; xxi.
191.

416 Audin, following in the
track of Bolsec, traces Calvin’s conversion to wounded
ambition, and thereby exposes, as Kampschulte justly observes (I. 242),
his utter ignorance and misconception of Calvin’s
character, whose only, ambition was to serve God.